Tomtit

Sour Ale

5.6% ABV - alc./vol.

A flash of yellow feathers and a whirr of tiny wings signals doom for an unlucky insect but lunch for little Ngirungiru. In the woods all over the South Island, he and his cousins are frantically catching food for their less flamboyantly coloured mates and their chicks. Through early summer, if undisturbed by pesky mammals, a pair might raise three clutches of eggs. It’s a busy life, lived well.

To make this refreshing sour ale, naturally-occurring Lactobacillus bacteria were given free reign for a few days in the brew kettle before it was fired up. The beer was then conditioned on over a hundred kilos of tamarillos — each small fruit outweighing those miniature tomtits several times over — for tart and rounded fruitiness.